Tag Archives: Sony

We’re not sure why you’d wanna do that, but then again, why not? The Etsy store Decalgirl has been making decals for over a decade, and they like to make an old school NES version for each new generation of consoles. The one you see above is for the PS4, and aside from giving your console a retro look, it’ll also protect from scratches. The decals are made to order, although these guys are fast and will ship within one day of ordering. It’s $20.

You guys know the drill. You just follow the links below and enter to win, it’s easy! This time around we’re giving away a PS4. You can even get more entries into the giveaway by sharing on Twitter, and if your friends and followers enter too, you’ll get more entries.

Giveaways, giveaways, we love to give stuff away! This time you can enter to win a Playstation 4, along with Battlefield 4, and 2 controllers. That’s a $520 value, which you could win just by clicking a couple of buttons. The link is at the bottom, so don’t wait and enter!

Virtual reality made an early attempt at adoption in the mid 90’s; those of you old enough will remember the clunky helmets, the terrible lag and awful resolution. No wonder it failed. Now with the work being done on the Oculus Rift, there’s hope that the second wave of that tech will catch on. But as awesome as the Oculus Rift is, there are still many obstacles in the way of its mainstream adoption. Sony may have put yet another roadblock in the form of its Project Morpheus. This is going to be Sony’s own attempt at one-upping the Oculus. Whether the device itself is superior in the end doesn’t really matter, since the fact that Sony’s peripheral will be native to the console means it’s much more likely that developers will code around it over the Oculus. Yes, that does mean VR wars are shaping up, but we’re a little worried for Oculus. What does Project Morpheus have in the bag?

1080p display
1000Hz motion detection

Only one headset at a time is supported

Headset is currently connected to the PS4 by a 5-meter wire

Positional/rotational head tracking

Tracking is handled by the same camera that tracks PS4 Move controllers

It works for people with glasses

Content pushed to the Morpheus can be mirrored to a TV, but it sounds like it can handle asymmetric gameplay (different things on each screen) as well.

An “Open air” design prevents the lenses from fogging up. (It’ll be interesting to see how they prevent light leaking in)

As for when this is ready for prime time? At this point it’s anyone’s guess.

The Sony Walkman NWZ-W270 has been on the market for a while now, but this particular marketing strategy is brand new. Auckland, New Zealand based ad agency DraftFCB was asked by the Japanese giant to help it market the device in the country. To do so, they came up with Bottled Walkman, which simply puts the Walkman in an actual bottle of water and inside a vending machine. They’re selling it at gyms and swimming pools, places where the target demographic is likely to hang out. The visual impact of seeing the Walkman in water sort of drives the point home, though we’re left wondering if anyone is going to actually drink that water after they buy it.

Been thinking about switching sides? If your PS3 is gathering dust in a corner, and you’re intrigued about the Xbox One’s Kinect 2.0, or the new controllers’ rumble triggers, or the HDMI-in for cable TV passthrough, or voice commands… then you should know that Microsoft has just sweetened the deal for you. If you bring your old PS3 to a Microsoft retail store in the US, they’ll give you $100 off the price of the new console. This brings it on par with the PS4, at $399.

If you don’t have a PS3 but still want in on the action, you should know that they’ll also take an Xbox 360 S or E as a trade-in for the $100 rebate.

Another camera? Yawn, right? Well, not quite. We’re actually really intrigued by the rumored DSC-QX10 and DSC-QX100 from Sony. These are not cameras, at least not complete ones. They’re meant to be attached to a smartphone (iOS or Android), and operated through the on-screen buttons, but the “cameras” lack a display, even a shutter. What they do have is “a sensor, processor, zoom lens, WiFi connectivity and an SD card slot.” Not just any sensor and lens, mind you, but the vaunted 1 inch RX100 Mark II sensor and Carl Zeiss lens in the DSC-QX10. The QX100 will get a “larger 10x focal range and a 1/2.3-inch 18-megapixel CMOS sensor.” So yeah, you might be able to squeeze some pretty high quality shots from your phone… but really it’s not your phone anymore, now is it? Granted it’s not a full fledged dSLR either, so an argument could be made for portability. But these are crossover products and these can be hit or miss. The DSC-QX10 and QX100 are expected to be officially announced on September 4, for an as-yet-unknown price.

E3 is underway, and unlike editions of the past few years, we’re treated to all new console reveals (if you ignore Nintendo, who’s already had one out for a bit… did you know?) which means people are excited. It’s been more than 7 years after all! And while a lot of folks had been talking about Microsoft’s XBox One and it’s next-gen Kinect and rumble-trigger controllers… Sony just gave them a slap heard round the world with the PS4. How? Two things: 1) the ability to share, sell, rent or lend any game, without restrictions and 2) pricing the console at $399 rather than Microsoft’s $499. There. Case closed. Sony wins.

It might look like we’re exaggerating, but in case you haven’t been keeping track, this matters because the XBox One will officially make it near impossible to do anything with your games once you’ve paid for them, unless the publisher allows it, which is unlikely. Yes, Microsoft is ready to deal a fatal blow to an entire industry built around renting games and reselling used ones. Worse still, the console has to check in to a central server every 24 hours or even single player games stop working! You’re not online? You’re a soldier stationed in the middle of nowhere? Tough luck, no XBox One for you, son. Rumble triggers, next-gen Kinect, super ultra TV central? That won’t matter to a lot of people who’ll be more than happy to flock to Sony for what is likely to be just as good a gaming machine for $100 less, and 100% more freedom. Good job, Sony.

Incidentally, you should watch the instructional video below. It’s Sony’s step-by-step on how to share a game when you have a PS4.

The long wait for the Xperia Z is almost over. Sony CEO Kaz Hirai delivered some good news at the D11 conference when he announced that Sony’s flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z, will be arriving at US carriers shortly. With him was Phil Molyneux, who added that further details on the announcement will be provided in the “coming weeks.” Neither named any specific carriers nor did they expound on the actual date on the phone’s release, but at least we’ve got confirmation that it’s going to be sometime soon.

OhGizmo! is a frequently updated blog that focuses on covering items that will appeal to a very specific and often very passionate audience: the geek. Aside from the fare of innovative consumer electronic products, the reader can expect to find news about geek culture, absurd inventions, awe inspiring technology, and an ever growing assortment of articles that we like to think fit within our view of what we’re calling the Geek Lifestyle.